COVER N. 688 - CZECH REPUBLIC

Postmark: Svaty Valentyin Milostin 12.02.2026

Posted on the 12th February;  Received on the 18th February 2026

_________________________________________________________________________________

A special Valentine's day cancellation coming from the Czech Republic. Děkuji mnohokrát, Ivan.

I have to confess: nothing against love nor against celebrating it in whatever way people might want to do it, be it through a letter, even if ridiculous, as Fernando Pessoa claimed that all love letters are, or through a Valentine's gift, or through whatever one might think fit for the occasion. After all, Love is the most important and encompassing emotion that a human may feel (since it syncretically absorbs all the catalogue of human emotions) so nothing bad can come out of the simple fact of celebrating it.

BUT

Traditions are part of one's culture and as such are bound by a reference framework that is specific to a given group, country, society. 

I also have nothing against welcoming traditions from other cultures into our own space. As I said they are manifestations of culture and there can't be anything wrong in that (provided such traditions do not conflict with the set of values that define humanity at large... do not expect me to accept genital mutilation just because it is a tradition somewhere....)

What really annoys me is pushing traditions into other cultures, by way of sheer mercantilism. I have seen it happen in my lifetime more than once and I really find it ... well...annoying.

Valentine's day is one such case, as is, for instance, my biggest pet hate: Halloween.

Back in my courting days time, we wrote ridiculous letters, we gave ridiculous gifts, we did all sorts of ridiculous things as befits lovers all year round... we needed no Saint or specific date for that...

Although I'm not a religious person, I think I can say that Saint Valentine was never one of the most revered  saints in Portugal, as I am absolutely positive that no one had ever heard of Valentine's day around here say 40 years ago.

Now go to a supermarket in my country around the first weeks of February and you'll find all sorts of things that make celebrating love an obligation, be it chocolates, flowers, parfumes, lingerie, you name it....

Commerce has put the celebration of love into the yearly obligations calendar in Portugal but celebrating Love as an obligation is a contradiction in terms....

Anyway,  the same has happened in quite a number of non-Anglo-Saxon ancestry countries like the cancellation on the cover so clearly proves..... a sign of times..... 

Maková panenka a Motýl Emanuel, or Poppy Doll and Emanuel the Butterfly are the central characters of an animation series of 13 episodes produced in 1972 that was very popular in what was then Czechoslovakia.

The two characters are the subject of the B tariff self-adhesive stamp, issued on 06SEP2023.

The theme for the EUROPA/CEPT common issue of 2008 was "Writing Letters". The Czech issue comprised one single stamp with a face value of 17 Krone, issued on 07MAY2008.

According to Google, the handwriting on the stamp is that of  Marina Richterová, the stamp's designer.

The Commemorative Postmark features no place of issue.